Achini ousts top seed Chandrika
Young sensation Achini Ratnasiri came up with an outstanding performance to beat top seed Chandrika de Silva to be crowned the new women's singles champion in the 58th annual Senior Badminton Nationals Championship which concluded yesterday at the Royal College Sports Complex. Achini managed to beat top shuttler Thilini Jayasinghe in the semi finals mostly played a defensive game and was involved in several rallies. Her placements were superb and she displayed a wide array of strokes including some wonderful drop shots and fake smashes which were played to perfection. The left handed Achini won the game 21/14, 21/14 in straight sets.
Meanwhile the undisputed king of Badminton Niluka Karunarathne was once again on song as he bagged the men's singles title by beating his younger brother Dinuka Karunarathne 21/14, 21/14. Niluka played some unplayable drop shots to tire his opponent and used his favourite smash shots to gain points. The pick of the games was the men's doubles final as top seeds Diluka and Dinuka Karunarathne met rookies R.S Dahanayake and Hasith Chanaka in a fast paced game.
Hasith and R.S Dahanayake combined together proved to be a lethal force to reckon with as they were ruthless on the attack and their defense was difficult to penetrate. They won the first set 21/18. In the second set both teams were in fine rhythm and were involved in several rallies to gain points. It was 20/20 and a simple error from Hasith Chanaka helped Diluka and Dinuka to gain a valuable point to move the score to 21/20 and have the match in their favour.
The pendulum swung both ways but R.S Dahanayake and Hasith got a lucky break and a delightful smash shot sealed their victory. The final scoreline read as 23/21 and a jubilant Hasith and R.S were crowned as the new men's doubles champions. In the mixed doubles finals the experienced duo of Niluka Karunarathne and Chandrika de Silva won the game in straight sets 21/15, 21/11 against Dinuka Karunarathne and Lekha Shehani.
Preethi Jayawardena the Managing Director of Chemanex PLC was the chief guest for the prize giving.
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